FIA reveal Shanghai abuse for Hamilton

Friday 11 January 2008 00:02 BST

The vicious abuse Lewis Hamilton suffered in Spain was not an isolated incident, his father has told motor sport's governing body.

McLaren star Hamilton was jeered and taunted during pre-season testing in Barcelona last weekend, and now the 23-year-old's father Anthony has revealed his son was targeted by Spanish fans - who travelled to support then team-mate Fernando Alonso - at October's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

FIA president Max Mosley told the Sunday Times: "Anthony Hamilton told me that there were some people in China who were also appallingly abusive; not Chinese fans, but people who had travelled from Spain."

He added: "If they went to Australia and did something like that, they could get arrested and we would know their names, and passport numbers, and they wouldn't get into another country.

"We will do everything we can to stamp this out, we will do whatever it takes.

"If, as appears to be the case, only a very small number of people are involved, it ought to be possible to stop it immediately.

"If it isn't, then we have sanctions and we could pull the grand prix."

There were calls for Spain to lose one or both of its grands prix this year in the wake of last weekend's abuse.

Mosley insisted that would have been an over-reaction, saying: "We have a very wide discretion, but we have to be responsible and measured," he said.

"Not to give the Spanish authorities the opportunity to show they can deal with it and ensure there is no recurrence would have been over the top. But it is necessary to make it clear it will not be tolerated, and we have done that."